An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure

With the storms hitting this area recently, many businesses have faced somewhat extended power outages. For firms that relied on remote data centers, it’s likely nothing changed. But what about those firms that didn’t replicate and store their information remotely? Changes are they could not operate, and customer trust could likely have been shattered. Clients will feel they can no longer rely on the company to protect their valuable and often confidential data and will turn to a firm that can. Use of a remote data center can bolster your reputation as being trustworthy and reliable. Customers know that their data is safe and they can count on the company to continue operating and meeting their needs.

IT Web reports that the cost of data breaches and data loss will top $2.1 trillion by 2019 as more consumer and enterprise data is digitized. Juniper Research reported that the majority of these breaches come from existing network infrastructure and IT systems rather than new or emerging technologies. And that figure doesn’t factor in compliance issues. Both HIPAA legislation and private standards such as PCI-DSS have very specific requirements. Data loss will prompt a monetary fine and potentially an investigation into your storage and retrieval practices. This may even result in legal issues from compliance authorities, causing the cost of your data breach to increase even further.

Start with the basics:
• Regular Data backups, either on site of preferably with a cloud-based storage facility.
• Educate employees on the importance of data loss prevention and strategies to avoid common mistakes, such as opening unknown email attachments or downloading unfamiliar apps.
• Develop data classification standards to identify critical information and ensure that this data has the highest priority in event of a loss.
• Grant access to pertinent information only to employees directly tied to the project.

Mobile devices can present unique issues all their own. As the ability to work remotely is in higher demand, sensitive information is being transmitted over home wireless networks or public connections. It is best to implement network control and authentication in these cases. Data should only be transmitted across a secure network and users should be required to use at least a two-factor authentication in the event a mobile device is lost or stolen.

Need to get your data under lock and key? Give us a call at 800-538-0669 to speak to our IT Director and prevent a data loss from taking down your company.